He may have emerged as an early frontrunner - but there is still no word from Andy Burnham on his Labour leadership ambitions.

Nonetheless speculation swirls among Labour insiders both within Westminster and beyond over his chances.

Many insist neither he nor any of the other expected candidates is a clear-cut Blair or even Kinnock figure, expressing general confusion over who best to back.

Most seem certain, however, that the Leigh MP will go for the top spot, having spent considerable time marshalling union support in the background.

He remains second favourite at the bookies, behind slick moderniser Chuka Umunna, yet in the absence of any announcement from the Burnham camp a Twitter account set up two days ago - @andyforleader - is so far pushing a campaign that hasn’t even officially launched.

Some speculate that he is waiting until after the party’s National Executive Committee meeting tomorrow, at which the timetable for the process will be discussed, to officially push the button.

As well as recruiting weighty levels of union support - not least through a strong anti-NHS privatisation line - Mr Burnham has also courted the local party base here in Greater Manchester.

And the unions - thanks to reforms brought in by Ed Miliband - may not hold as much of a sway as they did during the last leadership race in 2010.

Trade unionists each now have one vote, the same as MPs and rank-and-file party members - and they only get one if they actively sign up to become ‘affiliate’ members of the party. It remains unclear how many will have done so by the time the deadline hits.

Either way the union barons - perhaps most significantly Len McCluskey of Unite - will be making recommendations to their membership over who to go for.

But while the union vote could be key to pushing Mr Burnham over the line, it brings with it its own problems.

“The kiss of death is if you are the big union candidate,” says one senior local Labour figure. “The Tory tabloids will go after you straight away. He won’t want the dead hand of Len McCluskey on him.”

A second senior insider had yet to make up their mind over who to support, but was scathing of the shadow health secretary.

“I would never, ever support Andy Burnham. He would just be another Ed Miliband - and not a very good one at that,” they said.

There is risk, too, from the tarnish of the Mid Staffs crisis and Mr Burnham's role in the party’s latest election defeat, which followed a campaign that saw his health policies put at the heart of the Labour message.

And his apparent reinvention is causing concern too.

“He has shifted from being a Blairite privatiser to union man,” says a third seasoned insider, claiming he has a ‘bad odour’ with many north west MPs and council leaders following the devolution row.

“Having said that, he is the union candidate and has been round the country quite a bit evangelising about health, so he’s probably got quite a lot of support - but not necessarily where you would expect it."

So far most MPs seem to be hedging their bets, some in the hope an outside candidate could suddenly emerge from the woodwork. As it stands, there is all to play for as Labour embarks on both a diagnosis and a remedy to its election fortunes.